The archæology of Rome, Part 8

by John Henry Parker

[52] ascus (?): Buecheler reads this ad spem.

[53] The Torquatian Gardens were near the Porta Maggiore, and probably the same as those of the Sessorium, now those of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.

[54] Canina published a volume on what he considered to be the Temple of Spes, by the side of the Porta Maggiore (as before mentioned); but a few years afterwards those ruins were pulled down to make room for a modern guard-house. In doing so, the inscription of the dedication to Hercules was found by the architect, Felice Cicconetti, and sent to the Vatican Museum. This statement was made to me some years since by Signor Cicconetti himself, and was confirmed by his friend, Signor Simelli, the photographer, who said he had seen it.

The fact is now denied by the Roman archæologists, and when challenged by the Cavaliere Visconti to shew him the inscription in the Vatican Museum, they say they cannot now remember anything about it; and the stone with the inscription upon it has not been found. It is printed by Dr. Henzen in his collection of Inscriptions as then in the warehouse of the Vatican Museum; but he considers it to have belonged to a wayside altar only, not to a temple.

The twin reservoirs are very near the same spot; but the place where the Aqua Appia enters Rome is in the gardens of the Sessorium, some distance from the gate, to the east of it. An old specus certainly runs along the Cœlian Hill, nearly under the Neronian Arcade, and part of it is now used for the Aqua Felice. I have been along it for more than a quarter of a mile, from near the Porta Maggiore to the Lateran. The Aqua Felice is carried down a sharp incline into that old specus, and the metal pipes on the slope are still supported on brickwork of the first century, probably part of the Marcian Arcade, when rebuilt in that part by Frontinus. The old specus runs on (or ran on, it is said to be now interrupted,) to the reservoir on the Cœlian Hill, at the Arch of Dolabella.

That a part of the eastern side of Rome went by the name of Spes Vetus, is said to be proved by a curious graffito upon the bottom of an amphora, found in 1871 in the excavations in the Exquiliæ, near the Porta Maggiore, of a cobbler’s stall, in that district:—

TYCHICI
SVTORIS
A. SPEM VE
TERE.

This piece of terra-cotta is of the first century of the Roman Empire; but at what period the name and address of the cobbler was scratched upon it, is a question not so easily answered.

[55] The Aqua Claudia and Anio Novus enter Rome at the extreme eastern point on a lofty arcade, which formed the northern boundary of the Sessorian gardens, and was incorporated in the Wall of Aurelian. This extends for about a quarter of a mile; it then turns at a sharp angle to the north, and passes over the Porta Maggiore, to its final reservoir in a tower at an angle to the north of that gate. But part of the water of the Claudia and the Anio Novus united, was carried straight on along the bank on which the arches of Nero stand, to the Cœlian Hill and the reservoirs at the west end of it. The temple, called by Canina Spes, stood near the angle where the water was divided into two distinct channels, between that point and the Porta Maggiore.

[56] The name of Porta Esquilina is here given to the Porta Maggiore, the outer gate on the road to the Esquiline. The same name was also given to the inner gate in the agger of Servius Tullius; but there must always have been an outer gate also in the outer mœnia, or bank and wall for enclosure, which was a necessary part of every fortified city. (The same name, Porta Angelica, is still given to both the inner and the outer gate of the Leonine City, near the Vatican.) The high streams were carried on this bank to the Porta Viminalis of Frontinus, now called the Porta di S. Lorenzo. The remains of these three aqueducts can be plainly seen on entering through the city wall close to the Porta Maggiore, on the north side, and going along on this bank to the Porta di S. Lorenzo. The specus is visible at both ends, carried on arches. In the middle the ground is higher, and the specus pass through it underground, and then emerge and are carried again upon arches, exactly as described by Frontinus. The Aqua Felice is carried over the three aqueducts of the Marcian arcade; it is on arches twenty feet from the ground at each end, and in the middle, where these three are underground. The lower part of the specus of the Aqua Felice almost touches the ground, while the other three are underground.